Life of a Servant
by L.Hawk
Summary: General Braginski leaves for war, leaving his son Ivan in charge of his sisters and a house full of servants with different nationalities. This is the story of their lives and relationships.
1. Prolouge

Genaral Braginski was a powerful and influential army man. Added to the fact that he came from a wealthy family, that made him a very rich man. Being as wealthy as he was, he built a large and beautiful mansion with hundreds upon hundreds of rooms on top of a large hill for his family.

Unfortunately his wife died young, leaving him with three children, two daughters with a son in the middle. His son Ivan, who was 15 when his mother died, was left in control of the house when the General was away fighting, which was pretty much all the time. To help run the household, they had six servants working for them. At least, that was what was official.

In reality they had twenty people who worked in the house. This was because all of the servants had children; some their own sons, others younger siblings or orphaned nieces and nephews. It didn't matter. The children of servants were allowed to live in the house, provided they help with work. In other words, they basically became servants themselves. In exchange, they were allowed room and board and their guardian's wages might be raised a little. It was far from an ideal situation, but given the difficulty of supporting a family, they had found six applicants.

They had hired a woman to clean the many rooms. Her name was Artamis, for an ancient goddess of her Greek homeland. She had a single son, Hercules, Who helped her with any lifting she had to do as well as minded the three cats who lived in the house.

They had hired a woman to do the houses' laundry. She was an Egyptian woman named Nut, after a ancient Egyptian goddess. She as well had a single son, named Gupta who helped her in the laundry room.

They hired a Chinese man named Yao, barely 16. He had three younger brothers that worked in the house, Kiku, Yong soo, and Jun, all three of whom helped Artamis with her cleaning, while Yao served as a personal servant to Ivan.

They hired a chief of security, Leos, who kept the house safe. He had three sons, Rodrich, who worked in the kitchens and Gilbert and Ludwig, who worked in the armory, polishing guns and the like. He also had three nephews he was responsible for, Children of his dead brother. They were Toris, Ravis and Eduard, and they helped Nut down in the laundry room.

They also hired Leos' niece, Elizaveta, to be a lady's maid for Ivan's younger sister Natalia. She had two younger siblings, Vash, who worked in the armory with Gilbert and Ludwig and Lili, who worked as a Lady's maid for Ivan's older sister Katyusha.

They hired an Italian man named Romulus to be the cook and tend the large vegetable garden. He had three sons, Antonio, Lovino and Feliciano who all worked in the kitchens and the gardens with him.

They all lived in the servants' quarter, which was a sort of attic with six small bedrooms and a bathroom. Each officially hired servant had a room, which was for them and the children under their care.

A/N-

I do not own Hetalia

I realize this is a fail ending

General Braginski= General Winter

Artamis= Mama!Greece

Nut=Mama!Egypt

Jun=Hong Kong

Leos=Germania

Katyusha=Ukraine

Romulus=Rome

Yao+ Elizaveta=16 years old

Rodrich, Kiku, Antonio, Vash, Hercules, Gupta and Eduard=14 years old

Yong soo, Lovino, Gilbet, Toris, Lili= 12 years old

Ludwig, Ravis, Jun=9 years old

I may or may not continue this with stories of their daily lives. If you want me to, review!


	2. Ludwig gets lunch

Leos had just come back from his latest patrol of the perimeter of the estate. He patrolled constantly until 21 hundred hours, or 9 o'clock. The night guards then took over from him and his crew. there were two other guards that held stationary positions, Berwald and Tino, and three that took over the night shift, Matthias, Alexander and Jokull.

During the day, two of Leos' sons, Gilbert and Ludwig and his nephew Vash, worked in the armory/guardhouse, doing things such as polishing guns and mopping the floor.

Right at the moment, Ludwig was cleaning out the small bathroom in the guardhouse and Gilbert and Vash were polishing the guns. Nobody knew why exactly, but Master Ivan always insisted the guards had intensely polished guns, so Gilbert and Vash and Ludwig would polish one set of guns while the guards patrolled with another.

Vash was staring at the gun he was working on with a sort of fervent fascination, while Gilbert sighed boredly every so often. Gilbert had finished one gun and had moved on to the third, there were three guns per set, while Vash was still working on his first, being extra thurough.

Ludwig had finished cleaning the bathroom and was just coming back into the room when Leos, said, "Ludwig, can you go get our lunch from the kitchen?"

Ludwig nodded and Gilbert stopped his polishing for a moment and pulled a scrap of paper out of his pocket, "Give this to Roddy while you're up there," he said, smirking slightly before getting back to work.

Ludwig nodded once more and left the mop and bucket leaning against the wall, to be put back later, and headed out of the guardhouse, up the path to the main house. Every day, the chef prepared not only elaborate meals for the Braginski family, but simple meals for all of the servants. They ate breakfast and dinner together in the kitchens, but for lunch, Romulus would pack baskets full of food and someone from each part of the house would come pick them up around noon.

Ludwig set off across the lawn to the house. Being the youngest in the guardhouse at 9 years old, Ludwig was often called on to run errends, at least the ones that didn't require any heavy lifting. Truth be told he rather enjoyed his trips to the kitchen to fetch lunch, though he knew better than to admit it. He especially enjoyed seeing a particular Italian boy, for although the boy's exuberance was a tad overwhelming at first, it was nice to interact, however fleetingly, with someone his own age.

The kitchen was warm as he stepped into it, slipping in through one of the many doors meant for servants. As was expected, no sooner had he entered then he was glomped by an exuberant ball of energy. He was used to it be now, and managed to stay on his feet. Feliciano grinned, "Ludwig came

to see me, ve~"

Ludwig frowned, "Er...Ja. And also..."

He never got to finish that thought, because Lovino, snapped, "Get the hell away from that stupid kraut and come help me chop these pepers." Feliciano stood on his tip-toes, given that Ludwig was a few centimeters taller than he was, and kissed both the other boy's cheeks before running back to help his brother. Lovino snorted at how flustered Ludwig looked, "The lunch baskets are on the table."

Ludwig made his way over to the table, where, sure enough, there were roughly twenty-five baskets packed with food, and began to stack them in the special way he had, gathering one for Gilbert and one for Vash, and one for Berwald and one for Tino, and three more for when the other guards woke up. He was just about to reach for another one, when Feliciano suddenly said, "Wait." He hopped down from the stool he had been standing on and ran over to another counter area, grabbing two baskets that had been set aside."I made one specially, for you."

Ludwig blushed and set it on the bottom of his stack as he said, "Danke," while avoiding eye contact with Feliciano.

He was saying, "And this one my Papa made 'specially for your Papa."

Ludwig nodded and noted the blue ribbon tired around the handle. Romulus changed the color, depending on the day. From his place by the stove, Romulus said, "Be sure your Vatti gets it. Capito?"

Ludwig nodded, "Ja." He put one basket on each arm, his own on the left arm, his father's on his right arm, and was just about to pick up the stack when the door opened and Antonio and Roderich made their way through it, carrying many items from the nearby market. Remembering what Gilbert had asked him to do, Ludwig quickly set his lunch baskets down and fished the piece of paper he had been given out of his pocket and said to Roderich, "Bruder asked me to give this toyou."

Rodrich set some of the things he had down on the floor and freed his hand to take the paper. Ludwig turned and slipped his arm through the handle of his lunch basket and picked up the stack, making his way around Roderich and Antonio to the door. Just before he reached it, Rodrich said, "Tell Gilbert he is a ridiculous fool." Ludwig nodded in understanding. They all had their little games.

Ludwig stepped out of the kitchen into the sunshine. He headed toward the wall that surrounded the estate. There was a staircase that led up to the top of the wall, which was wide enough for the guards to patrol. He knew that Berwald was stationed on the corner that faced southeast, and Tino was stationed on the corner that faced northwest, and between them they could see in almost every direction, and their few blind spots, Leos covered on his patrols.

The stack of lunch baskets came up to about Ludwig's chin as he set out along the wall, toward the southeast corner because it was closer. He made his way to where Berwald was standing, gun in hand, eyes focused on scanning for any intruder. Ludwig cleared his throat, and said, "Berwald?"

The giant of a man, merely grunted, not turning around to look at Ludwig. Ludwig cleared his throat agian, "I brought you some lunch."

Berwald turned breifly to grab the top basket, and mumbled something that sounded like thanks. Ludwig nodded and moved to keep going, because Berwald scared him slightly, but Berwald said, "W't." Ludwig gulped, but turned back toward Berwald, who held out a peice of folded scrap of paper and said, "f'r T'no."

Ludwig took it carefully and said, "I'll make sure it gets to him."

Berwald thanked him again and turned back to looking over the wall, scanning for threats. Ludwig swallowed once more and continued passed Berwald toward the nothwest corner.

When Ludwig handed Tino the note, he read it and turned bright red. Not even wanting to guess at what it might have said. He kept going passed Tino, beack toward the stairs from the opposite direction. He saw his father approaching from the other direction and called out "Vatti."

Leos smiled slightly as his son approached, carrying the lunch baskets. He bent down slightly and ruffled Ludwig's hair as the boy shifted the baskets to pull the one basket tied with a ribbon that Romulus had packed for his father. He held it out, saying, "Romulus asked me to make sure you got this one."

Leos raised one eyebrow and accepted the basket with a soft "Danke," fingering the blue ribbon for a moment before telling Ludwig, "Hurry up and get back. You don't want to keep you brothers waiting."

Ludwig nodded, "Ja Vater," and continued on his way back to the guardhouse.

He stepped into the guardhouse. Having finished with servicing the guns, Gibert and Vash had each taken to sweeping one side of the main room. Ludwig came in quietly, and set three of the lunch baskets aside. He then said, "Vash, Gilbert, I brought lunch." The two older boys set their brooms against the wall, and approched Ludwig, Gilbert bounding forward and Vash moving at a slower pace. As Gilbert grabbed one of the baskets, Ludwig said, "Roderich told me to tell you that you're a ridiculos fool."

Gilbert grinned, "I knew Roddy'd like it!"

Ludwig and Vash both raised their eyebrows, but didn't say anything. They knew Gilbert. Ludwig handed Vash the last basket in his hands, then pulled his own off his arm and the three of them sat down to eat. Ludwig finally got to see the basket Feliciano had made for him. His heart skipped a few beats when he saw it.

The standard lunch basket was a piece of meat between two pieces of bread, and maybe a piece of fruit. Feliciano had taken two peices of bread and turned them into works of art. The first piece of bread had mustard on the top half, the same color as Ludwig's hair along with two blueberries for eyes and a red jam mouth set in a frown as his so often was. The second piece of bread had the top half sperd with gravy, the same color as Feliciano's hair, with two dots of a darker brown sauce for eyes and a huge smile of a red jam mouth. Feliciano had even set an almond in place to represent his weird hair curl.

Although he hated to destroy such beautiful works of art, he was hungry, so he set the included piece of meat between the two slices of bread and began to eat. It tasted terrible, but he didn't care. There was a note enclosed that said, "Friends Forever." A small smile graced Ludwig's lips. It was little things like this had made life worthwhile.

A/N-143 people read the story, and I didn't get a single review, alert of favorite. I realized it was a weird set up, so since the muse struck me to write in the AU, I said to myself, why not post this and show people what they're missing. I forgot to mention that Feliciano is also 9. And I made the Nordics guards, because I like them. So there. Oh. And I don't own any of the Hetalia characters.

Alexander=Norway

Mathias=Denmark

Jokull=Iceland


	3. A trip to the Market

It was cold and rainy. That didn't change the fact that Romulus needed several ingredients for meals to be made later that day. As such, just like every morning, Antonio and Roderich, the two oldest of the boys working in the kitchens, were sent out to go and buy the necessary ingredients from the closest town. Of course being rather large, the mansion was quite far form said town.

There was a car on the property, and a chauffeur Lars, who didn't interact with the other servants much, but only members of the family, and those escorting them, could use it, therefore the only people who ever rode to town other than the family were Elizaveta, her sister Lily, and occasionally Yao. Anyone else who needed to get to town, namely Roderich and Antonio, was forced to walk.

Antonio, usually viewed their daily walk to town as an adventure, unlike Roderich, who merely viewed it as another chore, but even he was more subdued than usual as they set out in the rain. Still, Antonio wasn't completely cheerless, it simply went against his nature, and he remarked, "Hey, maybe there'll be less customers because of the rain, and the merchants will give us better deals."

Roderich rolled his eyes, "You say that every time it rains, and it has yet to come true." Not that it wouldn't be nice to pay less for the items they were asked to buy, because Romulus would be in a beeter mood if they broght back more change, but Roderich knew enough not to get his hopes up.

They walked along in silence for a while, Roderich wishing, as he often did, that he worked in the armory with his younger brothers. They were probably warm and dry right now. He also, though he was loathe to admit it, didn't like the fact that he spent more time with Antonio's father than he did his own. Still, he had a propensity for cooking and it was probably for the best that he worked in the kitchens.

Antonio tugged on Roderich's arm excitedly, "See that rock, that means we're half way there!"

Roderich's spectacles were fogged up with the rain, and they weren't quite strong enough to give him normal vision anyway, so he couldn't really see the rock, but he took Antonio's word for it, "Even so, we still have quite a ways to go."

Antonio slung his arm around Roderich's shoulder and said, "Come on, Roddy, stop being such a kill joy." Roderich rolled his eyes and pushed his glasses up his nose. He had long ago realized that he could not get Antonio or Gilbert to stop calling him Roddy. Antonio was oblivious to his annoyance and began to babble.

Antonio often babbled about this and that, and Roderich had been working with him long enough to tune him out. He had very little interest in the mundane talk of everyday life, especially when it was cold and rainy. Antonio slung his arm around Roderich's shoulder; Roderich leaned in toward the tounch ever so slightly, but otherwise didn't react. One thing he had learned while working in the kitchens was that, except for Lovino, they were all very touchy-feely people. He had also learned, for living with Gilbert, that it's not worth fighting touchy-feely people, provided they're not trying to molest you.

As they got closer to town, Roderich's practicality kicked in, and he turned to Antonio and said, "Romulus wanted us to get tomatoes, cabbage, peppers, apples, beets, potatoes, garlic, and milk right?"

Antonio thought for a minute, "And kidney beans."

Roderich bit his lip, "I'd forgotten about those. We'll head to Bella first then?"

Antonio's grinned widened, "Si." Roderich rolled his eyes. Bella was a local merchant, and she ran a smallish vegetable stall in the marketplace. The two of them came to her stall nearly everyday, and were on good terms with her. Antonio had developed a slight crush on her. Roderich found the whole thing ridiculous.

They made their way to Bella's stall quickly. The rain had slowed to a slight drizzle, but the streets were still devoid of people. Bella was sitting under the awning of her stall, leaning back boaredly. Antonio, upon seeing her, called out, "Bella~"

She broke into a grin when she saw him approach, "Good Moring Antonio. My goodness, your absolutely soaked."

Antonio grinned, "We walked all the way here in the rain, just so we could see you."

She giggled, "I see. And I suppose your just happened to be given a shopping list of your way out?"

Antonio blushed. Roderich rolled his eyes. Antonio said, "Oh, Lovi told me to tell you that you did something to your tomatoes. He said they weren't as good as they were before."

Bella shrugged, "Tell your brother I don't grow the things myself; I only sell what Mr. Bonnefry tells me to sell."

Antonio nodded, "I'll tell him that. You dress looks very pretty today, by the way."

She smoothed the skirts, "It's the same dress I wear every day."

He smiled, "And it looks good on you every day."

Roderich coughed lightly to get Antonio's attention. They still had a task to complete. Antonio looked at him and frowned, then turned back to Bella and said, "We have to get tomatoes, cabbage, peppers, apples, kidney beans, garlic and milk."

"You forgot beets," added Roderich bluntly.

Antonio's smile didn't falter, "Oh yeah and beets too."

She replied, "Well, I have everything except the apples and the milk. Can I see your basket?"

Antonio had been carrying a basket over his arm the whole time and he handed it over to her. She filled it up with all the requested items and handed it back, giving them the total. Antonio took the basket, while Roderich handed over the requested total from the money Romulus had given him.

Once the transaction was done, she said, "Have a nice day."

Antonio, reached forward and grabbed her hand and kissed it, "Our day will be a hundered times better for having seen you, Querida."

She pulled her hand away, then burst into a fit of giggles at the hurt look that crossed Antonio's face. Roderich sighed, grabbing his arm and dragging him off to a nearby fruit stall. Antonio stared dreamy-eyed back at Bella, while Roderich bought five apples. He then grabbed Antonio's hand and began to pull him across town to the Dairy.

Antonio said, "Eliziveta is your cousin, right?"

Roderich frowned, "Ja. What of it?"

Antonio hurried to keep up with him, "Well, I was thinking, maybe you could ask her where she gets the flowers she has in her hair every day." He sighed dreamily, "I was thinking I could bring Bella one."

Roderich rolled his eyes, "Why don't you ask her yourself?"

They had just come to the dairy, which cut their conversation short as they entered. After a lengthy haggling process, they managed to convince the woman running it to fill a jar full of milk. They then handed over all of their remaining money and left as quickly as they could.

The rain started up again when they were halfway back, and by the time they made it through the back gate, under Berwald's intense scrutiny, and back to the kitchens, they were soaked.

Lovino, who was chopping a carrot, snapped, "Stop dripping all over the floor, bastards."

Romulus frowned, "Now, now Lovi, there's no need to be so harsh. Did you get everything?"

Ignoring Lovino's mutters, "It's Lovino Danmit," Roderich turned to Romulus and said, "I believe so."

Little Feliciano cut in, "Ve, Papa, I finished cutting up the bread like you said."

Romulus smiled, "Good job, Feli. Roderich, put the basket don over here. You and Feliciano can start cutting up the potatoes next. They need to be cubed roughly cubed."

Meanwhile, Antonio had snuck up behind Lovino and hugged him. Lovino had snapped, "Don't do that, idiot."

Antonio had just laughed. He pecked Lovino's cheek and said, "Oh, Bella told me to tell you that she just sells the vegetables, not grows them, so she doesn't know what they do to the tomatoes."

Lovino snorted, "Well next time you see her, tell her that she should have noticed something was wrong anyway damnit."

Antonio laughed, "Okay fratello." And he would tell her. After all, they all had their little games.

A/N- I don't own Hetalia. Also, I introduced two new characters who may or may not be showing up later:

Lars=Netherlands

Bella= Belgium

Also, because empressfate requested it:

Antonio=Spain

Lovino=Southern Italy (Romano)

Feliciano=Northern Italy

Roderich= Austria


End file.
